Saratoga  Three sitting Saratoga Springs City Council members were sworn in along with two newly elected Democrats on Sunday, Jan. 1 at this year’s inauguration ceremony at the City Center.

At 1 p.m. Judge Jeffrey Wait administered the oath of office to new Finance Commissioner Michele Madigan and Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen. The pair beat incumbents Richard Wirth and Kenneth Ivings Jr. for the positions. Mayor Scott Johnson, a Republican, was also opposed but won the race against Brent Wilkes for a third term in office.

Account Commissioner John Frank and Public Works Commissioner Anthony Scirocco ran unopposed.

“I look forward to working with the new council toward achieving our common goals,” said Johnson. “I congratulate the two new members of the council for a well fought campaign. Even better is their willingness to really dedicate their service to our community.”

About 100 people attended the event with city officials surrounded by friends and family as they were took their oaths of office.

Johnson said he feels the new council can go beyond party lines to get the city’s business in order.

“I think quite honestly there is a great amount of work yet to be done,” he said. “We are facing extreme challenges still with the economy, we have a 2 percent tax cap. We have a lot of things still on the table to solve and the best way we can do that is to put political differences aside, and build a consensus toward the common goal: the betterment of our community.”

Throughout his campaign, Mathiesen ran on a platform of adding police officers and implementing an earlier last call throughout the city. He said the bar issue was one of the first he planned on dealing with, especially after a man was stabbed at 1:30 a.m. on New Year’s morning at a bar on Maple Avenue.